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Black St Louis police officer shot by white colleague 'fearing for his safety'Off-duty black officer arrives at crime scene to help, is ordered to groundWhite officer shoots, ‘apparently not recognizing’ colleague One suspect was shot, one arrested and one escaped the St Louis crime scene.

Associated Press in St LouisSaturday 24 June 2017 23.01 BST First published on Saturday 24 June 2017 13.00 BSTAn off-duty black St Louis police officer’s race factored into him being mistakenly shot by a white officer who didn’t recognize him during a shootout with black suspects this week, the wounded officer’s lawyer said on Saturday.

The 38-year-old black officer was off duty when he heard a commotion near his home and ran toward it with his service weapon to try to help his fellow officers, police said.

St Louis’ interim police chief, Lawrence O’Toole, said the incident began when officers with an anti-crime task force followed a stolen car and were twice fired upon by its occupants. One suspect was shot in an ankle and was arrested, along with another teenager who tried to run from police, O’Toole said. A third suspect is still being sought.

When the off-duty officer arrived at the scene to help, two on-duty officers ordered him to the ground but then recognized him and told him to stand up and walk toward them. As he was doing so, another officer arrived and shot the off-duty officer, “apparently not recognizing” him, police said.

The police department as of Saturday had not disclosed the names of the officers, who have been placed on routine administrative leave as the matter is investigated. Police described the black officer as an 11-year department veteran and said he was treated at a hospital and released. The officer who shot him is 36 and has been with the department more than eight years.

The black officer’s lawyer, Rufus J Tate Jr, discussed the shooting to St Louis Fox affiliate KTVI, but the officer was not named in the report. Tate did not reply to several phone messages seeking comment.

Tate told the station his client identified himself to the on-duty officers and complied with their commands. He questioned the white officer’s account, according to police, that he shot the off-duty officer because he feared for his safety.

“In the police report you have so far, there is no description of a threat he received,” Tate said. “So we have a real problem with that. But this has been a national discussion for the past two years. There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared.”

It was in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson where a white officer shot an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, three years ago, setting off months of protests, some of which were violent. The officer, who later left the force, was not charged, further straining relations between the area’s black community and the police.

There have been several notable instancesin which an officer mistakenly shot a colleague. In 2009, 25-year-old New York City police officer Omar J Edwards, who was black, was shot and killed by a white officer on a Harlem street while in street clothes. He had his service weapon out and was chasing a man who had broken into his car, police said.

Three plainclothes officers on routine patrol arrived at the scene and yelled for the two to stop, police said. One officer, Andrew Dunton, opened fire and hit Edwards three times as he turned toward them with his service weapon. It wasn’t until medical workers were on scene that it was determined he was a police officer. A grand jury voted not to indict Dunton.

A year earlier in the suburb of White Plains, New York, a black off-duty Mount Vernon police officer was killed by a Westchester County policeman while holding an assault suspect at gunpoint.

In Providence, Rhode Island, an off-duty black police sergeant, Cornel Young Jr, was accidentally killed by two uniformed white colleagues in 2000 while he was trying to break up a fight on a parking lot. Young, at the time the son of the department’s highest-ranking black officer, was dressed in baggy jeans, an overcoat and a baseball cap, and was carrying a gun.

A jury rejected a $20m federal lawsuit by Young’s mother against the city and its police force, who she claimed did not properly train officers about how to identify their off-duty and plainclothes counterparts.

FBI statistics show such accidental police-on-police shootings occur at a low rate given the tense, confusing circumstances officers routinely face. In 2013, according to online FBI figures, only two officers were killed when mistakenly shot as a result of crossfire, mistaken for a subject, or involved in other firearm mishaps. The FBI statistics do not specify the race of the officers killed.

"All hail the Snowden!"The reason why Snowden is so revered,is becos he exposed the chicanery of the CIA and blatant disregard of fundamental rights of US and global citizens through intrusive covert surveillance,tapping digital commns.etc.,and the fake news being pout out by establishment media,which has led to the popularity of RT,Al Jazeera,etc.,giving viewers an alternative source of news.It is estimated that in Britain alone,there are over 2M viewers of RT.The CIA's Pandora box has been opened,and closing it may be impossible.

Trump CIA Director Mike Pompeo says leaking on rise thanks to 'worship' of Edward Snowden'I think we'll have some successes... on punishing those who we catch who have done it,' Mr Pompeo says

Deb Riechmann Washington DC The Independent US

CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he thinks disclosure of America's secret intelligence is on the rise, fuelled partly by the “worship” of leakers like Edward Snowden.

“In some ways, I do think it's accelerated,” Mr Pompeo told MSNBC. “I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandisement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.”

Mr Pompeo said the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information. Putin says Edward Snowden was wrong to leak US secrets“It's tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but non-state, hostile intelligence services, well-funded - folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy,” Mr Pompeo said.

Besides Snowden, who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks recently released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA's cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers. WikiLeaks previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are several other recent cases, including Chelsea Manning, the Army private who was convicted in a 2013 court-martial of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Ms Manning said she leaked the documents to raise awareness about the war's impact on innocent civilians.

Mr Pompeo said the Trump administration is focused on stopping leaks of any kind from any agency and pursuing perpetrators.

“I think we'll have some successes both on the deterrence side — that is stopping them from happening — as well as on punishing those who we catch who have done it,” Mr Pompeo said.

On other issues, Mr Pompeo said that North Korea poses a “very real danger” to U.S. national security.

“I hardly ever escape a day at the White House without the president asking me about North Korea and how it is that the United States is responding to that threat. It's very much at the top of his mind,” he said.

He added the North Koreans are “ever-closer to having the capacity to hold America at risk with a nuclear weapon.” Mr Pompeo also said that US national security also is threatened by Iran, which he described as the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

“Today, we find it with enormous influence, influence that far outstrips where it was six or seven years ago,” Mr Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, said. “Whether it's the influence they have over the government in Baghdad, whether it's the increasing strength of Hezbollah and Lebanon, their work alongside the Houthis in Iran, the Iraqi Shias that are fighting along now the border in Syria - certainly the Shia forces that are engaged in Syria. Iran is everywhere throughout the Middle East.”

There is a personality type with a New York developer, one Donald learned from Fred when he carried his dad’s briefcase to acquisition meetings out in the boroughs and it goes like this:

Donald contracts for a service or good, or the acquisition of a piece of land for $1 million.

He then does not pay you

You ask Donald for your million dollars

Donald yells at you, basely, abusively, wholly out of character to the rich gentleman you broke bread with and made the deal with. He tells you that no, YOU owe him $200,000. Gives you no reason but screams how can you be such a son of a bitch to rip him off, how he’s going to sue you, expose you as a cheat, etc.

You’re off your pins, defensive. How could this be the guy who was so nice when he picked up the check at Per Se?

So, you compromise, because human nature avoids conflict, right? This is what he’s gaming you for because once you compromised, you’ve lost. You’ve inferred his premise that you have some complicity in the matter otherwise why would you compromise? You are on the defensive and will never get it back.

You offer $750,000 as a settlement, angry but want it over and done with. He then sues you. Why, because you’ve already committed yourself to the loss. You volunteered to surrender your position and what will stop you from keeping going?

I’ve seen many a New Yorker settle things like this with Trump people for 5-10 cents on the dollar and then happy, even eager to keep doing business with them. Why? Because he got in their heads with this aggressively counterintuitive behavior.

The new American president ended decades of Washington’s sucking up to China and in the process saved America’s 63-year-old alliance with South Korea and boxed in North Korea.

Gordon G. ChangGORDON G. CHANG07.02.17 9:34 AM ETHONG KONG—“I am,” said Moon Jae-in on Thursday, “in complete sympathy with President Trump’s diplomacy of strong power.”Strong power indeed. So strong that Moon, the newly elected South Korean president who disagrees with Trump on most everything, unexpectedly fell into line with the American leader. The Thursday and Friday meetings between Trump and Moon cap one of the most consequential—and successful—weeks for U.S. foreign policy in recent memory. All it took was four days for Trump to discard two—and maybe four—decades of Washington’s settled China policy. By doing so, it looks like he saved his country’s six-decade-old alliance with South Korea, which was in danger of coming under China’s—and North Korea’s—sway.And by preserving unity with Seoul, Trump, at least for the moment, narrowed the options of North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un, limiting the possibility of his nuclear adventurism. The momentous week began with the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House, marked by three bear hugs between the pair and the warmest of welcomes. Washington observers had been concerned that current trade and immigration irritants would derail the approach set by the Bush and Obama administrations to fortify links between the world’s most populous democracy and its most powerful one, but Trump kept ties on track. “The relationship between India and the United States has never been stronger, has never been better,” the American leader said, accurately characterizing matters.The word “China” did not pass the lips of either the American president or the Indian prime minister in their post-meeting remarks Monday, but it was clear both saw in the other the means to contain an increasingly aggressive Chinese state.

Doubts about the significance of Monday’s meeting were dispelled the following three days. Tuesday, the State Department dropped China to the worst ranking—Tier 3—in its annual Trafficking in Persons report after not giving the country another waiver. Among other things, State cited China’s use of forced labor from North Korea.And then came two blasts Thursday. First, the Treasury Department designated Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank, a “primary money laundering concern” pursuant to the Patriot Act. The U.S. charged that the bank has been handling, in violation of American law, money for North Korea’s ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs. This was not the first time Treasury severed a Chinese financial institution from the global financial system—it cut off Bank of Kunlun in July 2012 for evading Iran-related rules—but it was, as sanctions expert Joshua Stanton told The Daily Beast, “an important first step, one that will send a clear message to the Chinese banks that have long laundered North Korea’s money and aided its proliferation.” Moreover, Treasury on Thursday sanctioned a Chinese company, Dalian Global Unity Shipping Co., and two Chinese individuals, freezing their assets and prohibiting U.S. persons from dealing with them. Second, the Trump administration on Thursday notified Congress of a proposed $1.42 billion sale of arms to Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing’s claims as its 34th province. The White House, not wanting to upset Chinese officials, had sat on the package, which the Obama administration had prepared in its final months.Beijing was “outraged” over the arms sale and angered over the Patriot Act designation, but the administration, according to various reports, did not care. As one observer told the Washington insider Nelson Report at the end of last week, “word on the street” is that the White House “has called this ‘F--- China Month.’ ” GET THE BEAST IN YOUR INBOX!

The new attitude toward China is bound to last more than a month as the president has, in the course of four days, clearly thrown out two decades of American policy that had placed a higher priority on integrating China into the international system than disarming North Korea. Moreover, it looks like he has also started a dynamic that will lead to the reversal of four decades of attempts to place the promotion of friendly relations with Beijing over the stout defense of immediate American interests

In a new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, draws a portrait of the new reality in a way that is frighteningly, indelibly clear: America is not one country anymore. It is becoming two, each with vastly different resources, expectations, and fates.

The richest large economy in the world, says Temin, is coming to have an economic and political structure more like a developing nation. We have entered a phase of regression, and one of the easiest ways to see it is in our infrastructure: our roads and bridges look more like those in Thailand or Venezuela than the Netherlands or Japan. But it goes far deeper than that, which is why Temin uses a famous economic model created to understand developing nations to describe how far inequality has progressed in the United States. The model is the work of West Indian economist W. Arthur Lewis, the only person of African descent to win a Nobel Prize in economics. For the first time, this model is applied with systematic precision to the U.S.

The result is profoundly disturbing.

In the Lewis model of a dual economy, much of the low-wage sector has little influence over public policy. Check. The high-income sector will keep wages down in the other sector to provide cheap labor for its businesses. Check. Social control is used to keep the low-wage sector from challenging the policies favored by the high-income sector. Mass incarceration - check. The primary goal of the richest members of the high-income sector is to lower taxes. Check. Social and economic mobility is low. Check.

Along with Thomas Piketty, whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century examines historical and modern inequality, Temin’s book has provided a giant red flag, illustrating a trajectory that will continue to accelerate as long as the 20 percent in the FTE sector are permitted to operate a country within America’s borders solely for themselves at the expense of the majority. Without a robust middle class, America is not only reverting to developing-country status, it is increasingly ripe for serious social turmoil that has not been seen in generations.

Boy this might be about America but is very true about India. Most of the Professionals who have a good paying jobs are ones in IT/ITES/KPO acting as a Back Office for the West. This is only because of artitrage but jobs within for India, the high paying jobs are restricted to social circles and relatives.

Sally HemingsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSally HemingsBorn Sarah Hemingsc. February 1773....Known for Enslaved woman who had children by Thomas JeffersonChildren Harriet Hemings, Beverly Hemings, Harriet Hemings (II), Madison Hemings, Eston HemingsParent(s) Betty Hemings, John WaylesRelatives James Hemings, John Hemings, Mary Hemings, John Wayles Jefferson, Frederick Madison RobertsSarah "Sally" Hemings (c. February 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman of mixed race owned by President Thomas Jefferson. Most historians believe Jefferson was the father of her six children,[1] borne after the death of his wife, Martha Jefferson. Four survived to adulthood,[2] and were given freedom by Jefferson. Hemings was the youngest of six siblings by the widowed planter John Wayles and his mixed-race slave Betty Hemings; Sally and her siblings were three-quarters European and half-siblings of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton.[3] As an infant Sally came to Monticello as part of Martha's inheritance of her father's slave holdings.......Gautam

Andrew Buncombe New York Mr Trump and Mr Putin apparently had 'positive chemistry' ReutersThe leaders of the US and Russia both claimed a political victory after their first meeting, as the two sides appeared to have brokered a potentially meaningful ceasefire in part of Syria – a surprise development few had anticipated.

The Trump administration claimed the US President had, from the start of a meeting that lasted two hours and sixteen minutes, pressed Vladimir Putin in a “very robust and lengthy exchange” over Russia’s alleged interference in the US election. Russia then claimed Mr Trump accepted Mr Putin’s assurance that it had not. That in turn, was then denied by a US official.

Alongside the different versions of the much-anticipated encounter between the leaders of the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear powers, it appeared the two sides had managed to pull out something of genuine value – a ceasefire in south-west Syria that would be guaranteed by Russia, the US and Jordan.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who along with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and the leaders’ translators were the only other people permitted in the room, said there had been “positive chemistry” between the two presidents.

For more than a decade, the relationship between the two countries has been nothing less than tense. In Syria, the US and Russia have taken different sides in a civil conflict that has in many ways become a proxy war.

Yet, Mr Tillerson said Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had an interest in seeing stability there. Though Mr Tillerson said details about the ceasefire need to be worked out, Mr Lavrov said Russian military police would oversee it, with a monitoring centre set up in Jordan.

Mr Tillerson said the understanding is designed to reduce violence in an area of Syria near Jordan’s border and which is critical to the US ally’s security. Jordan’s Petra news agency said it would go into effect on Sunday.

He called the area a “very complicated part of the Syrian battlefield” but said the deal “is our first indication of the US and Russia being able to work together in Syria”.

Moscow has staunchly backed Mr Assad, supporting the Syrian militarily since 2015. Washington has backed rebels fighting the regime of Mr Assad. However, both the US and Russia have declared their opposition to Isis and claim they are focused on rooting out the extremist group.

But, previous ceasefires during Syria’s six-year civil war have proved fruitless, with one party or another breaching them and leaving little lasting impact.

It was not immediately clear exactly which areas of southwestern Syria would be covered by the upcoming ceasefire but earlier talks between the United States and Russia about a “de-escalation zone” covered Deraa province, on the border with Jordan, and Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Sir Michael Fallon, the UK Defence Secretary, said that while he welcomed any ceasefire in Syria he wanted to see results on the ground.

“The recent history of the Syrian civil war is littered with ceasefires and it would be nice ... one day to have a ceasefire,” Mr Fallon said at an event in Washington.

“None of these have turned out to be ceasefires, they have been broken persistently, broken by the regime and indeed broken by Russian activity itself. So... we welcome any ceasefire, but let’s see it, let’s see the results on the ground,” he said.

On the domestic front, Mr Trump’s decision to confront Mr Putin over Russia’s alleged interference in the US election, will only help him at home in Washington. Much of the US President’s term has been taken up fighting off allegations that his campaign team colluded with Moscow to tilt the contest in his favour.

Trump meets Putin for first time since winning presidencySeveral probes into the issue are underway on Capitol Hill, while a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, is leading a federal investigation into possible collusion and whether Mr Trump may have obstructed justice.

Mr Tillerson said the US President pressed Mr Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement in the US election. He said the Russians had asked for “proof and evidence” of its involvement.

“The two leaders agreed that this is a substantial hindrance in the ability of us to move the Russian-US relationship forward,” he said.

“I think the President is rightly focused on how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point.”

A day earlier, speaking in Poland, Mr Trump had said Russia probably meddled in the election but said that other countries likely did as well.

Earlier, the US President had spoken to reporters as he and Mr Putin posed for photographs before their discussions.

“President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well,” said Mr Trump. “We look forward to a lot of very positive happenings for Russia and for the United States, and for everyone concerned.”

READ MORETrump 'may block Time-Warner-AT&T merger unless CNN boss is ousted'Creationist allowed to chisel away at Grand Canyon under Trump's orderTrump 'accepts Putin's claims Russia did not meddle in US election'For his part, Mr Putin said he was happy to be able to meet Mr Trump in person.

“We spoke over the phone but phone conversations are never enough, definitely,” he said. “I hope that, as you have said, our meetings will yield positive results

A Minneapolis man who says he's heartbroken and "devastated" after his bride-to-be was shot and killed by police this weekend is "desperate for information" in the shooting.Here's what we know about the deadly Saturday encounter.The shootingJust before 11:30 p.m. Saturday, two Minneapolis police officers "responded to a 911 call of a possible assault," and "at one point an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman," according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the lead investigating agency.The BCA said the 911 call will not be released until the investigation is over.The officers' body cameras were not turned on at the time of the shooting and the squad camera didn't capture what happened, the BCA said, adding that "investigators are attempting to determine whether any video of the incident exists.""When the investigation is complete, the BCA will turn its findings over to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for review," the bureau said.The two officers involved are on paid administrative leave, the Minneapolis Police Department said.Australian woman fatally shot by police in Minneapolis after calling 911Philando Castile's mom urges people to 'treat each other better' a year after his police-shooting death

The victimThe medical examiner's office has not yet released the victim's identity, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune said she was 40-year-old Justine Damond, an Australian woman living in Minneapolis with her fiancé, Don Damond."Her maiden name was Justine Ruszczyk," the Star Tribune said, adding, "While the couple were not yet married, Justine referred to herself as Damond on her personal website."Damond's website says she was a yoga instructor, a personal health and life coach and a "meditation teacher, embracing and teaching the neuro-scientific benefits of meditation."Don Damond was overcome with emotion as he spoke to reporters in Minnesota this afternoon.He said Justine Damond called 911 Saturday evening reporting what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby.He said his fiancée's death is "a loss to everyone who knew her.""She touched so many people with her loving and generous heart. She was a teacher to so many and living a life of openness, love, and kindness," he said. "Our lives are forever changed as a result of knowing her. She was so kind and so darn funny. ... It is difficult to fathom how to go forward without her in my life."Family friend Julie Reed read a statement on behalf of Justine Damond's family at a press conference in Australia."She was treasured and loved and we will really miss her," Reed said.The Star Tribune said some people wept at a vigil held in the neighborhood Sunday. About 50 friends and neighbors held hands in a semicircle near the site of the incident, and about 200 or more others watched from the sidewalk and the street, the Star Tribune said.

Guys guys.It's not as bad as it sounds. Chicago is divided into many regions. Almost ALL the shootings and killings are in the South side (99.99% blacks) and some Western suburbs which are a mix of blacks Latinos and other types of people who have traditionally lower education levels.

The richer areas are NW suburbs, Loop and the North side. Indians, Jews, Whites and other professional/business type people live there. Crime is almost non existent (very low). You can walk around at night and are okay.

Chicago gets a bad reputation but we need to dig deeper to see the real truth. It's no different from people who say "'x' terrorists from India" which makes it seem like Hindus are into terrorism, but splitting the data would reveal that it was all peaceful people.

Yes, but that is more like 1920s stuff. Until 1940s. It's been different since then though the ghost of Al Capone and Bugs Moran still pervades. Even the city does not talk about them or monetize the reputation in any way which is surprising.

Chicago might be in news for crimes alone.but my neck of woods has news that it is equivalent for the same crimes in taken in terms of population and crime.Chicago=my place (but has lower population). mine is a safer town with some places as one of the best top 20 to raise family in entire usa.

Bad taste, can get in big trouble if posted on Teetar etc in this time of runaway PCness, but hain, the Truth must be told.

That Minnibrain-Polis event is a clear open&shut case of Not Guilty. Self-Defense. Officer Just Doing His Very Tough Job. Compare to all the Precedents. Look at the facts: What is a momeen to do if a haraam kufar wimmens runs towards his car in the middle of the night with ankles and even maybe forearms exposed, hain? What is an UNMARRIED woman doing out on the street talking to strange men (and you CANNOT argue that these polis were not strange, hain?) in the wee hours? He did not have any stones handy, so he had to do the next best thing: pull the trigger at her "abdomen".

Going by the vast precedent of excuses given for all the other polis shootings by Patriotic Joe6Packs, (should be) Hung Juries etc:

Hey, you wanna come to the Yoonited States and tell us how to run our Polis force? Australian women should learn not to run towards American polis cars in the middle of the night with their ankles and forearms showing.

And this before they even had time to get out of their cars, slam the doors, talk into their shoulder radios, turn on their body cams, car cams, and machine guns etc. Took them totally by surprise, and **NEVER** do that!

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov cracked a joked Friday that President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, may have had interactions beyond the three occasions on which they are known to have spoken at this month’s G-20 meeting, dismissing a question about it without outright denying the possibility. “Well, maybe they went to a toilet together. That was a fourth time,” Lavrov told NBC News in an interview that aired Friday morning. “When you are brought by your parents to a kindergarten, do you mix with the people who are waiting in the same room to start going to a class, a classroom?”

Reminded by the NBC reporter that the G-20 meeting is not a kindergarten classroom, Lavrov responded that he was only speaking in terms of logistics. “Well, there is also a room where they get together before an event starts. They cannot arrive all at the same time in a bus,” the Russian foreign minister said.

That the U.S. president has thus far been unwilling to take a tougher stance against Russia has raised eyebrows among politicians from both parties in Washington as well as among world leaders around the globe. Lavrov characterized Trump’s administration as being under siege from opponents eager to drag it down. “The fight goes on. They want to make the life of this administration miserable. People try to speak about impeachment,” Lavrov said. “It’s absolutely a fight.”